We’ve been having to take our laundry to a laundromat. There’s more than you might imagine. Working around the property, we get dirty fast and Luna the Big Dog™ uses up a lot of towels so she doesn’t bring too much of the muddy yard (or pig blood) into the house. The laundromat is about 6 miles but 1200 feet elevation away down steep, one-lane roads so it isn’t a casual trip.
We brought a washer and dryer with us from the mainland, but when we first got here the existing power system didn’t even come close to being able to run a dryer.
Then we got power from our extravagant new solar plant, but there still wasn’t electricity or plumbing to the garage.
In mid-December I had a flash of inspiration. I could get a 100’ 50 amp 220 volt extension cord for the washer and dryer, and run a garden hose to the washer. I could plug in to the 220 volt EV charging receptacle the solar installers had put in — it was conveniently located as close to the garage as was possible to get from the house. I proudly predicted that we would be able to spend Christmas Day doing laundry.
It was not to be. A 100’ 50-amp extension cord is too heavy to be shipped to the island via USPS, and too expensive to ship any other way. We solved that by getting two 50’ cords shipped, but one got delayed and we missed our Christmas target. Also, the adapter from the charging receptacle to the dryer turned out to be the wrong kind, so we had to order a replacement.
Undaunted, I went out to the garage to get things ready for hook-up when I discovered that the washer had been damaged in shipping. I thought it was just the door gasket, but I removed that and noticed that things still weren’t right. Then I noticed the tub-suspension springs were out of place. I fixed those (another educational experience), but it still wasn’t right. Then a found one of the dampers had been torn apart. Sigh. I fixed that, though it took a few days. Finally, I thought I had everything fixed and started to re-assemble the washer.
Getting the door gasket back on was a significant challenge. LG makes a special tool to do it, but it’s $75 and takes 3 weeks (nominal) to ship. After losing time due to severe fatigue and some holiday adventures, I didn’t want to delay things by weeks more. Ugh. After many false starts and with a lot of help from HA and the hated YouTube, I figured out a workaround. I hope it holds up.
Today was a very sunny day. I got the house and the car charged up and I had solar energy going to waste, but then got the washer running and its drain system installed, and the energy-hungry dryer and its vent. We did our first load (Luna towels) and everything seems to work fine. Whew!
They’ll miss seeing HA and Luna the Big Dog™ at the laundromat (Luna is very popular there), but we won’t miss the necessity of leaving our mountain retreat just to have clean clothes. Even if it took island time to make it happen.
—2p